Ugh! Ugh! Motherfucking ahhhhh!!!!!! So about a week or two ago, Rob told me that he'd give me a watermarked copy of the Killers record and included with his offer a one way ticket to unemployment if I gave the record to anyone else. Knowing my own personal enthusiasm for this band and my animalistic need to spread the word on them (since day one), I turned down the offer. I knew that the second i got home i'd give a copy to Brandon, Gurj, Karen, Lawrence...

But then Brandon aimed me yesterday and said that album leaked and the link was on stereogum, so naturally, i immediately downloaded it. Up until this point, I only got to hear the album at the mercy of others... usually Rob as he blasted it from his office.

My favorite track on the album, since day one, was "Bling". I used to walk around singing the words to myself after hearing them at work. When Island had the listening party, Brandon managed to remember the song well enough to play some of it for me at home whenever he wanted to see me glow with happiness.

"Bling (confession of a king)" is absolutely my favorite song on the album, if not one of my favorite songs of the year. In my head I figured the song was like an explination or testiment to his family (specifically his older brother) about how hard it is to find a balance with fame/success and the way he was raised and how his flirtation with the darkside is what made him rich.

"so i ran with the devil/left a trail of excuses" - I guess i can identify with this line the most... sometimes i feel like i run with the devil and use my career as an excuse for my lifestyle that i know might be quite inappropriate... I'm not sure how religious BF's upbringing was, but personally, i'm terribly conflicted.

"when i offer you survival/you say it's hard enough to live" - is a line i see as him saying that he offered to support his family financially. Lord knows that now he can... but maybe they see it as taking dirty money?

But quite possibly the most meaningful line in all of Brandon's lyrical history is: "How do you know that you're right, when you're not nervous anymore." - Just think about that line for a second. I'm not sure if it was a fluke, or what, but it's probably one of the more introspective concepts I've encountered in a lyric. Just think about it... If a decision comes to easy for you, it means that you've got no options to battle it against. You can't be 100% certain that something is right unless there's another something that could also be right... you need to internally process which "thing" is better. It's totally some chinese-meditation shit that brian battjer was explaining to me about the concept of choices. Anyway, when you make a choise about something, it almost doesnt matter unless you think about that choice and have conflicts about it internally... ANYWAY, that is what this line is about... to me at least.

OK, so i just wrote a thesis on the lyrics of a song, and I could be totally off or totally rambling because I didnt have enough sugar in my body today.

Last night Karen and I went to MTV studios to see the Killers do the "Live Leak". We had missed their secret show cause it was on Rosh Hashanna. They filmed the show in the studio where they do TRL and decorated the place to look carnival-like, probably like Sam's Town, and there were about 50 people there. At one point Karen turned to me and said "remember when we said that irving plaza would be the smallest place we'd ever see them play again? i think this tops that." We stood in the back with Brandon and Ronnie's wives, but that didn't stop us from heckling out "we love the killers!!!" and dancing and bopping around like it was 2003. In reaction to my yelps of "KILLERS!!!!" Brandon's wife, Tana, kept on yelling out "MONKEY!!!!" That dog has more fans than anyone i know!

Anyway, they played a bunch of songs from the new album ("when you were young", "my list", "bones"...) as well as some old ones ("all these things i've done" and "somebody told me" i think). When they did "Bones" for a second time "for crowd shots" according to mtv's producers, i took that time to run to the bathroom and then run over to the greenroom to tell Rob that the dudes from Laguna Beach were there. As i was standing there, i heard Brandon say "this next song is bling" on the monitor, and then i heard a faint, yet quite loud scream of "i love that song!!!!" and knew immediately that it was karen. So I ran back into the studio and she said "did you hear me scream?!" Hahah. Obviously brandonf did as well, and got stoked out.

I'm so happy that another Killers record is coming out... I feel like it's gonna be the elixor to the energy slump i've been feeling lately.

So tomorrow we've got a killer Stolen Transmission (no pun intended). It was meant to be the after party for the secret show the Killers were having (that i was to be djing), but then that got moved to webster hall, so we're making it a pre-party for their SNL appearance. The band's been good about coming to ST every week whenever they're in town, so it's only natural for us to throw them a party. Imarobot will be performing as well as this great new band that i LOVE called Tall Hands (think Lou Reed meets John Lennon). There will also be free zygo vodka at somepoint. You guys should come. It's also the birthday party for Jessica Are I... and she's rad!

Hey, did anyone see the Oohlas show last night? I heard it was fucking sick.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

PINK IS THE NEW AWESOME

Like I mentioned before, PinkIsTheNewBlog.com will be hosting the Oohlas album release party because well, Trent and The Oohlas are in love and they're gonna have crazy looking babies that are kinda asian-ish like Suri Cruise. If you want to be on the guest list for this (because it WILL be packed and soldout), then email me sarah@stolentranmission.com and put "oohlas cd release show party guestlist" in the subject line. This is in LA.

Bright Light Fever and their manager Shawn Carrano, went up to the woods for a little R&R... and conducted a little pug porno.

Friday, September 15, 2006

NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP

OK, so last night Karen and I are djing at Stolen Transmission, and it's quite slow because it's fashion week, so the bartender announces last call at 3am, and no less than ten minutes later about 50 models showed up and kept on multiplying. It was kind of hilarious.

I was also sobering up from the Annuals show at Sin-e where i managed to get incredibly drunk and nearly knocked over by a bunch of super stoked huggers. I love Annuals! Way to go Speck!

I like the Strokes. Don't love them. I always felt, in my head, that there was a strokes vs interpol thing going on like there was a blur vs oasis thing or a smiths vs cure thing... so i was like "eff that ess i'm sticking with interpol" and have stayed true ever since. But then i have this intern jordana and she turned me onto their most recent record (the first record is amazing, i will say that... i'm just more of an interpol fan). jordana is the biggest strokes fan to walk this earth. she came to work the other day and played me the albert hammond jr. stuff and damn if it isn't great. sounds a bit like the strokes meets wilco.

So just wanted to mention that my buddy Trent and his blog, pinkisthenewblog.com, will be hosting the Oohlas record release party/show at Cinespace on September 26. He's the band's number one fan (after me), and they are huge fans of his blog, so the pairing is perfect. And everyone knows that that's Steve Aoki's night... and well, you can pretty much be sure it will be quite the fun scene.

Ampcamp is also doing the Oohlas presale. The record is inexpensive and i think there's gonna be some sort of special thing given to the first 50 orders. If you're not sure if you want to buy the oohlas album, check out this review in the october issue of blender! i started tearing up when i came across it while on the subway:

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

THE DEVIL INSIDE

OK, I know i said i would try to make this less about Monkey Monkey Monkey, and include bella in things, but my camera is presently out of commission, so i'm stuck posting whatever photos people send me of my pets. Nobody takes pictures of Bella. She's awesome, even for a plus-sized model cat, but fuck does she like to eat. She likes to eat and wake me up in the morning by stepping on my boobs and licking my neck, which is so fucking creepy i can't even get into it. The plus side is that she and Monkey get along so well and it's the cutest thing in the world to see the two of them play all the time. From the moment I wake up (to feed bella) to the moment I go to sleep (after i feed bella), they're head butting, wrestling, tail biting, chasing after each other... it's so cute.

Anyway, Brandon took Monkey to the dog park last week and there was a Kibbles N Bits thing set up where you could dress your animal up and take a photo with it. I think Leigh Lezark (who was there with her dog edie) managed to talk him into it, though, i'm not certain. Anyway, here's a photo of Monkey dressed up as a Devil, and Brandon dressed up as someone who hasn't seen the sun in many days:

Saturday, September 9, 2006

I SUPPORT THESE SHIRTS

I've always loved the "I SUPPORT SAME SEX MARRIAGE" shirt that Brandon wears and was delighted to find out that it was a company that his brother Travis and girlfriend Tara started. So... incase you want to show your support for some political causes, here's a link to their online store (click the pic):

On sunday night I went to DJ my friend's wedding in Long Island City while Brandon took Monkey to Long Island... since you all like pics of Monkey, here are a few pictures his mom and dad took of her getting a bath and stuff:

About Me

Sarah Lewitinn (born February 3, 1980), also known by her nickname Ultragrrrl, is a music critic, DJ, and blogger. She gained notoriety as an assistant editor at SPIN Magazine.
In 2006, New York magazine named Lewitinn as one of "The Most Influential People in Music", citing that "she has more power than any print music critic".